The same deep water
by SpringSpark
Summary: Here are many forgotten fairytale characters in the show who we love. What about them? What happened with them? Storybrook isn't so small, here will always be place for our fantasies.
1. Prologue

I tried.

* * *

**Prologue**

Cold grey sea softly rocked the boat. A girl who was sitting on the stern lit a cigarette and threw the match overboard. Her hair was wet, ends of long strands were faded red. She slowly dragged on and looked around.

At this early hour the pier was empty. Storybrook always was and always will be just a sleepy little town, even when magic returned. Empty grey streets with parked cars, black and white interior café "Granny's", school corridors – nothing changed, except herself. Townsfolk still do their job, eat their dinners and watch TV at night. This world is huge, people of the Enchained Forest are not capable to discover it. They want to spend their tiny lives in their tiny houses with geraniums on the windowsills. This is stupid.

Few months ago a girl in the boat was one of these people. She went to school, she even was a captain swimmers. Of course, she was a troubled teen, but her troubles weren't as serious as now. She swam a lot, that's all. She dyed her hair red, but many girls did it. She didn't know who she was all this time.

Now she knows, and it changes some things.

When you are caught, it doesn't matter where you are, even if your cell is full of sorcery. "You are still caught. You can't even go to the goddamn college, because you will lose your goddamn memories."

This girl was very angry at this early hour. To tell the truth, she was angry all the time. Yeah, fairytale characters can be mad sometimes too. She thought about her situation again and again, but she couldn't come up with anything. Helpless, she sat and smoked in the old boat of her father.

Suddenly sound of steps on the pier drew her attention. She turned around and saw a man. He did not observe her. There was something familiar in his figure, and the girl did not have time to recover, as in obedience to the reflexes, she slipped into the water. In the very, very cold water. Hiding behind the boat, she quietly swam to the pier.

She didn't feel how heavy became her shoes and sweater, she didn't feel how a big silver fish swam past her feet. She still had a cigarette in her mouth, so she took it with wet fingers and smoked.

She was almost under the pier, when the stranger disappeared.

"What the Hell?!" – she thought and went under the water.

He couldn't just vanish in the morning air. Of course, if he didn't use magic. She decided to at all costs to find out where did he go. A mystery was solved when she suddenly hit at something big and wooden under the water.

"A ship," – she realized and suddenly felt suffocated.

A moment later, she saw the ship's planking, a high stern and tall, slender masts. "Oh, what a surprise. The Coast Guard is not properly performing its duties." The girl swam to the porthole and looked into the cabin.

When Mark finally came to the pier, his friend, wet from head to toe, was sitting on the deck. He rushed to her immediately.

- What happened?

The girl raised her head and smiled weakly.

- He's here, Mark. He's in town.

The boy helped the girl to her feet and asked:

- Who's in town, dear, what are you talking about?

She grabbed his arm and whispered:

- Hook.

- No way, Ariel. No way.


	2. Chapter 1: Nerds and fishes

**Chapter 1 - Nerds and fishes**

- Here we are!

- Oh, dear, what happened? You look awful!

- It's OK, Mrs. Henderson, I've just fell from the pier. I'm so awkward.

A woman stepped away from the door letting Mark and Ariel go inside the house. She looked worried.

- Where's Joe?

Missis Henderson pointed on the living room door:

- You need to change your clothe, dear. You can borrow one of Joe's. And I'll make hot chocolate for you and Mark.

- Oh, thank you, - Mark smiled and softly pushed Ariel to the living room.

At a table by the window, her back to the door, sat a girl. She scrolled through the website on the notebook. When Mark and Ariel entered the room, she turned to them, and a heavy golden braid of hair on her back swung.

- Jesus, Arry, you're a fish. Now I see, - Joe rolled her eyes and laughed.

- And you're on Tumblr again, nerd, - Ariel replied.

- Not a big deal, - she closed the notebook and turned the wheelchair, in which she sat, - Go to the shower, fish, and take a fresh shirt.

The totally wet girl went to the door, but stopped, turned away, looked at Mark and whispered "Thank you". Her face twitched when she came out.

The boy sat on the couch and closed his eyes. The girl in the wheelchair closed her eyes too and asked:

- What happened?

Mark covered his face with his hands and replied:

- She met her old friend.

They were silent for a minute. When they opened eyes, everything was the same, except the pain in their eyes.

- Hook?

- Yeah.

- Shit.

- Yeah.

When missis Henderson came in with two cups of hot chocolate, Joe was on her dashboard again, and Mark was probably asleep. There was no sound of water in the shower.

- Thanks a lot, missis H, - Mark said when woman touched his shoulder. He looked at Joe and added, - Maybe I should go and check our suicidal crazy friend.

- She's suicidal? – Joe turned back, - I'm suicidal. You're suicidal. Everybody's fucking suicidal.

- This is goddamn true, but this is also from "In Bruges".

- I know, - she smiled. When he went away, she shouted after, - I'll drink your chocolate!

Mark came upstairs and knocked in the bathroom door.

- Wait a minute!

He looked around. He was in the Joe's room. She lived here for twenty years, so this place also became her face. There were a full collection of tapes with Disney movies, a cat and a big poster with the words "You don't need a prince to be happy, you, little piece of shit" written in Ariel's hand. She always had a weird sense of humor.

The funniest joke in the whole Joe's life was that this room wasn't her castle. Her body was her castle. It makes a lot of sense when your full old name is Rapunzel. When the curse was broken, and Joe found her prince, the prince wasn't happy about that. He dumped her. So, Joe said "I don't care" and began to watch about twenty shows simultaneously.

When Lizzie realized who she was, she rewatched "The Little Mermaid" and cried. She still does it, she watches this movie again and again. Sometimes she stops it and starts to shout "He wasn't my prince! And Rumpelstiltskin wasn't Sea Witch! Fuck it!" By the prince she means Hook, of course.

Ariel came out of the bathroom dressed in the Joe's plaid shirt and jeans.

- How do you feel?

- Like a piece of shit. I need my hot chocolate.

- Well, I guess Joe drank it.

- Well, I guess I'll drink yours.

Mark went up to her and hugged her. She shivered.

- I don't want to feel it again.

- You won't. You have me and Joe this time. We won't let you to screw up anything again.

Joe's aunt was more a bitch, than a witch. In Storybrook reality she found out that Joe need an operation which can make her healthy again, but did nothing. When magic returned, Joe's mother found her daughter, and her aunt ran away. But missis Henderson hasn't got enough money to help Joe. That's all complicated, even more than Ariel's "Hook story".

When they came downstairs, they saw that Joe drank both cups of hot chocolate and started to eat an apple pie.

And when Ariel tried to chock her off, Mark was staring at them and trying not to cry.


	3. Chapter 2: Rats and balls

**Chapter 2 - Rats and balls**

- The hell you doing, Hamilton?!

Coach whistled, and the game stopped. Mark spread his hands and went to the locker room. Covered in sweat, he pulled a T-shirt over his head and threw it on the bench. His classmates, talking, came to lockers. The captain of his basketball team came to him.

- Jesus, Mark, get your shit together, or you will take off from the team.

Mark nodded. It's easy to say "get your shit together", when you actually feel like your life is falling in pieces, when you, your friends and their lives are totally mess. "Get your shit together". When you know that one mad lost girl is sitting on your porch right now and smoking, waiting for you. "Get your shit together", they're all saying, when the other girl can't walk and spending her life in the other reality. "Get your shit together", they are shooting, even your parents, when you suddenly remember your real life, and it's horrible.

- Hamilton! Miss Johnson wants to see you.

Secretary approached him when he almost came out from school. His form-master Ms. Johnson waited him in the classroom. In short, she had two questions: where the hell Lizzie and why she doesn't go to the school. Since Ariel didn't answer to "Lizzie", there were a lot of troubles with her study. That's what he said to Ms. Johnson. Of course she will talk to her and say to "get it together", because she needs to graduate from school.

"Get it together".

What's wrong with you, people?!

When he finally came to the street, he pulled out of the bag Gatsby. Gatsby was a big white rat with big red eyes. Mark always loved rats, and they loved him, even before he realized why. Mark put Gatsby on his shoulder and went home listening "I want the world to stop", and he really wanted this piece of shit to stop.

When the curse wasn't broken, life was much better and easier. Of course, it sucks to stay in high school forever, but you feel like a normal teenager with normal problems; you can even be happy sometimes. But when you know that you are much more older then eighteen, but you still can't left the town and start to live, everything loses its sense.

Ariel, for example. Mermaids live long and don't getting old for a long time. Why, for God's sake, she needs to go to the school?! It's not "Twilight", it's a real life. And now this asshole Hook. You can't predict what this desperate girl will do in the next moment. What if she'll go to him? What if she'll do something irreparable?

The first thing that Mark saw on his street was a wheelchair, which raced down the street to the wild speed. Joe was grabbing the handle and screaming. Ariel was pushing the chair. Gatsby bit Mark's ear and squeaked something. It definitely was "These two are insane, we gonna die".

Fifteen minutes later they were sitting together on the Mark's yard. Ariel smoked, Joe played with Gatsby, and Mark set up a guitar. Yes, he was not only a basketball player, he also was a musician. What a cool guy.

- So, what you gonna do, Arry? – Mark asked, - Except school attendance, because I know, this is too small for you. Who needs education?

- I gonna take care of my own business, - she replied and frowned.

- Which name is Hook, - Joe added.

- But how? – He struck a chord, - You'll just go to him and say "Hey, do you remember me, we banged"?

- Nope. I'll go and break his face, - she punched her hand with a fist, - I'll break… his pretty… smug… face!

She punched again and again, and anger contorted her face.

- Such a good plan. Maybe I should lock you on your room for a while, because otherwise you will be dead soon.

Joe giggled, but Ariel became serious.

- I would kill him, if I could. This is what I really want.

- Don't tell this, dear. It sucks to kill people. It sucks to kill anybody.

He struck another chord and started to play. Gatsby tensed in the Joe's arms. Couple of rats showed their noses out of the basement, and one of them climbed out and came closer. Suddenly Mark stopped playing and grabbed it. He was looking in the rat's eyes for a moment and then released it.

- It sucks to kill animals too. I know, don't you forget that I am the goddamn Pied Piper of Hamelin?


	4. Chapter 3: Unicorns and bastards

**Chapter 1 - Unicorns and bastards**

- I gonna tell you a story.

- Are you drunk?

- Nope. I don't know. Maybe, a little bit.

She came under the Joe's window at about 3 a.m. She shouted "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair". And Rapunzel shouted in reply: "Move your ass to the stairs, you, lazy jellyfish!" However, Joe's parents didn't hear it and didn't wake, and Ariel went to the Joe's room.

Joe was sitting in the bed, small and skinny and her bright golden hair shone like gold. She wore her favorite pink pajama with white unicorns. Ariel looked faded and tired beside her. She sat in the chair next to the bed, took a hairbrush and said:

- Just a little bit. May I… - her voice sounded hoarse, - May I comb your hair?

- If you want to, my sweet drunk jellyfish, - Joe smiled and moved closer. She took Ariel's hand and asked, - Which story you want to tell?

Joe always stayed calm, even in the situation like this. Ariel was sitting on the breakwater and drinking beer for a while, and now she was more upset, than tipsy. She was a really troubled girl. And when she got tired throwing cans in the sea, she came to her friend, who was the calmest girl on the Earth. That's what friendship is.

- My favorite one, about love, magic and hard sex.

- OK. These things are always together.

Ariel slowly ran a comb through Joe's hair. Her eyes were dreary, she looked like a scrawny dreary dog, who lost its home and an owner. When she started to talk, her voice was deep and low.

- A long time ago there was a one young and stupid mermaid. She lived in the deep of the sea with her father and sisters, who were the greatest little bitches in the whole ocean. The mermaid always felt a painful passion to the people. She found them amazing. Literally, a-ma-zing. Yeah, she was a really stupid mermaid.

A great storm happened once. Wave soaring above the ship masts, which sailed the sea in this awful night. Lightning lit up the dark sky. Seagulls flying over the crests of waves. The ship was a pirates. Our stupid mermaid surfaced and saw it. She also saw how someone fell over the board, and she swam and found him. The mermaid pulled the pirate to the shore. He was almost dead.

To tell the truth, he was the most handsome she ever met. His hair was dark, eyes blue and arms were strong and tanned. OK, we know that the mermaid wasn't clever, but she was so foolish that she felt in love with him. It was love at first sight.

He didn't saw her, she swam away. After that night she lost her calm. She thought about him all day, she saw his face before her eyes, he became her obsession. She loved him, loved him, loved him so strong, as only a young girl can.

One day she was sitting on the rock and looking at the distant town. She whispered: "If I only had legs…" and shit happened. The guy who totally looked like a big crocodile appeared on the sand and giggled. He giggled a lot all the time. His name was Rumpelstiltskin, he was the biggest asshole ever. He asked the mermaid a couple of questions and offered help. He said that he did research about true love. He offered the deal: the mermaid will get her legs, but there will be a condition. If this pirate won't be her true love, she will never be able to see her really true love. And she will lose her mermaid tail forever, so she won't return to her family and her old life.

What a bastard.

The mermaid was the dumbest teenage girl ever. She was confident that the stranger from the sea rover is her love. She made the deal. The old demon gave her legs and dress, and she ran in the town. She ran with the wind, she was the happiest girl in the world.

Pirates don't have castles, so she found her captain in the tavern. He was drinking and laughing, he was even more handsome than she remembered. He noticed our young pretty (still stupid as hell) girl and ordered her a drink. Soon she was drunk. He wasn't a really bad guy, he didn't touch her, but she did. He kissed him first. And asked him to take her to the ship. To kiss her again. To love her.

I can't even, she was the worst dumbass ever.

Well, he actually took her to the ship and they had the most wonderful sex ever. Truly, this guy could a lot of different things. The mermaid was on the seventh heaven. She was very passionate for her age. OK. Let's not dwell on this.

In the morning she said that she loves him, he kissed her and walked her to the shore. That's all. She tried to meet him again, but sailed away in the same day. She was just a girl.

And this girl lost all: her love, her life, her family, her goddamn tail. She was alone among strangers. Nobody cared about her. She tried to ask for help from her father, but he called her a traitor. He was an old asshole, I suppose. This is why I spent last twenty years in the room above the Mark's garage.

I know, this story sucks, but our whole life sucks, so… Joe?

Ariel touched Joe's shoulder, but she was asleep.

- That's right, princess. That's right. Let's sleep.

She leaned and kissed her forehead. Joe stirred and muttered something. Ariel turned off the night light, and everything was plunged into darkness.


End file.
